The aim of this blog is to bring you news about developments in occupational safety and health across the EU and beyond, and also about EU-OSHA initiatives and activities to fulfill our mission.
We are one of the smallest EU agencies and cannot promise to reply to every comment, but we will read them and bear them in mind to shape our future work. The blog content is available only in English.
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On 18 June 2024, EU-OSHA supported the Focal point of Albania, the Senior Labour Inspectorate and Social Service, in the organisation of the OSH EU policies workshop. The event focused on the EU OSH practices, the fundamental role of social partners in the OSH policy making process as well as on the critical role of the Labour inspectorate in supporting compliance. Eda Beqiri, FOP manager of Albania was the event facilitator. Michele Dinelli, IPA project manager, introduced the work of the Agency, based on the EU OSH Strategic Framework 2021-2027, and its tripartite composition; as well as provided an overview of the rights and obligations deriving from the framework directive EEC/89/391. Ioannis Anyfantis, research project manager, presented the role of Labour Inspectorates in the EU Member States as well as their approaches and practices. A number of innovative methods for inspection implemented in Member States and relevant data and statistics extrapolated by the OSH barometer were also presented. Károly György, former international secretary at the Hungarian Trade Union Confederation MASZSZ, underlined the importance of social dialogue and shared important practical experiences regarding the OSH tripartite system. Zhulieta Harasani, ILO coordinator for Albania, provided information about the ILO conventions. And Irida Qosja, head of the Labour inspectorate, shared information about the new national OSH strategy, which is in the process of being drafted with the support of social partners. The event was very successful also in consideratio of the high interest from the audience, which was composed by representatives of the Ministry of Labour, Labour inspectors from SLISS as well as social partners, both from trade unions and employers’ associations.
On 11 and 12 June 2024, EU-OSHA organised the second Focal point meeting of the year, hosted by the Belgian Focal Point, Beswic - Centre de connaissance belge sur le bien-être au travail, in Brussels, Beligum. The aim of the meeting was to share with the EU member states, EEA countries and IPA beneficiaries information on the latest activities and projects of the agency as well as the latest OSH knowledge and create a group discussion on the activities and strategies ahead. The FOP meeting was organised back-to-back with the closing event of the Belgian EU Presidency focusing on the "Roadmap on Carcinogens", which took place on 13 June 2024.
IPA Focal point managers from Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye actively participated at the meetings.
The FOP meeting was also an excellent opportunity to plan activities ahead within the context of the IPA action.
On 28 May 2024, EU-OSHA participated at the workshop on "EU OSH policies" organised by the Administration of Inspection Affairs, EU-OSHA Focal point of Montenegro, and the NGO "Safety at Work Association of Montenegro" (SWAM). The workshop had the aim to raise awareness on the EU and EUMS OSH practices; as well as on the importance of social dialogue and the involvement of national social partners in the policy making process to strengthen the prevention of OSH risks in the workplace.
The workshop was opened by interventions from Darko Rašović, deputy director of the Administration of Inspection Affairs, Michele Dinelli, EU-OSHA IPA project manager, and Birgitte Kuchar, EUD to Montenegro project manager, who all underlined the importance of tripartism. Afterwards, Ivan Williams, IOSH, presented the global OSH framework and the support to knowledge sharing provided by IOSH; Michele Dinelli, EU-OSHA, explained how the Agency strategy and work programme are tailored to the EU OSH Strategic Framework 2021-2027, and he introduced the main EU OSH principles deriving from the EU framework directive; Károly Győrgy, former international secretary of the Hungarian Trade Union Confederation, underlined the importance of social dialogue and shared important practical experiences regarding the OSH tripartite system; Đina Janković, who was also acting as event moderator, underlined the work done by SWAM in supporting OSH dialogue at national level and within the Region, through the support of EU funded projects and through the regional network BalkanOSH, and stressed the importance of raising OSH awareness among students; finally, Zlatko Popović, FOP manager, shared information on the work of the Administration for Inspection Affairs within the context of supporting compliance and the implementation of the EU OSH legislation in Montenegro. Following the presentations, the audience had the possibility to raise questions and to seek for advice from the panel on how to best implement social dialogue. The audience was represented by social partners' representatives (trade union and employers' associations) and one representative from the ministry of Health. No attendance was registered from the ministry of Labour.
On 26 April 2024, EU-OSHA was invited to participate at an OSH conference organised by ILO to mark the World OSH Day (28 April) in Pristina.
The conference aimed at raise OSH awareness among policy makers, social partners, enforcement authorities, CSOs and the general public. The event was opened by interventions from the Minister of Finance, Labour and Transfer (Hekuran Murati), the Swedish Ambassador (Jonas Westerlund), the EU office Head of Cooperation (Johannes Madsen), and the UN Development Coordinator (Arnhild Spence), who all underlined the importance of OSH risk prevention in workplaces to protect workers’ health as well as to enhance business’ productiveness and economy competitiveness.
A panel discussion followed where the chief Labour Inspector and EU-OSHA FOP manager (Hekuran Nikçi), and representatives from the Chamber of Commerce (Bersat Krasniqi), from Trade Unions (Blendor Shatri), and from the Kosovo Stability Initiative (Brikena Hoxha) had the opportunity to discuss on accidents at work and on the importance of tripartite dialogue.
A second panel discussion on the topic of OSH risks related to climate change, moderated by EU-OSHA, saw the intervention of an ILO labour inspector specialist (Luiz Rocha), a senior policy and public affairs manager from IOSH (Dr Ivan Williams), one environmental protection advisor (Egzona Shala), and one environmental and OSH specialist (Ermira Elshani).
The audience was represented by representatives of policy makers, social partners, enforcement authorities, NGOs, and students.
Following the request by IPA Focal points, EU-OSHA has translated the HWC 2023-2025 material to IPA languages and started a public procurement for print out.
This will allow IPA Focal points to distribute the material at national level to increase the awareness of policy makers, social partners, enforcing authorities, NGOs and the general public on the OSH risks related to digitalisation.
On 6 February 2024, the national OSH experts of Montenegro, Mr Zlatko Popović, Chief Inspector for OSH from the Administration of Inspection Affairs (EU-OSHA Focal point), Ms Đina Janković from the Safety at Work Association of Montenegro (SWAM), and Ms Dragana Đokić, OSH psychologist/psychotherapist, delivered a training on OSH to 30 selected media employees and journalists. The activity was organised within the scope of the project “Behind the Camera in Front of Health: Journalistic Lifecycle in the Shadow of Risks”, implemented by the Network for the Promotion of Socially Responsible Business (MADOP) and SWAM.
The main goal of the training was to raise awareness on the psychosocial risks and challenges at work faced by journalists and other media workers, in consideration of the fact that they often work under difficult conditions and are exposed to psychosocial pressures, such as stress, threats, harassment and third-party violence. A culture of OSH psychosocial risks prevention is currently lacking in Montenegro and in general risks in the workplace are not adequately addressed.
Increasing awareness on the importance of OSH risks prevention and ensuring an effective implementation of OSH policies, as underpinned by the EU Framework Directive (89/391/EEC), are crucial to guarantee workers’ protection and, hence, to enhance the national economy, as well as to ensure the fulfilment of the EU accession benchmarks. Therefore, the aim of the event was, on one hand, directed to the relevant national institutions for them to implement a culture of OSH risks prevention and, on the other hand, for media employees and journalist to become aware of the existence and the management of psychosocial risks that could compromise their safety and health at work.
On 26 October 2023, EU-OSHA participated at an event organised by the national NGO Tutela to promote the publication of a booklet containing selected poems and stories on occupational safety and health written by primary school children.
Like every year, at the beginning of 2023, Tutela organised OSH awareness raising events in primary schools in North Macedonia and invited children to write poems and stories regarding OSH risks. On 28 April 2023, to mark the World OSH Day, the NGO awarded the young authors of most significative poems and stories. Afterwards, all the awarded writings were collected into a booklet and published. The booklet was promoted on 26 October 2023 with the participation of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (EU-OSHA Focal point) and EU-OSHA. And of course the young awarded authors accompanied by their parents, who particularly liked the broadcasting of the animated movie NAPO.
On 25 October 2023, EU-OSHA participated at the conference organised by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of North Macedonia (Focal point) aimed at raise awareness on the OSH risks related to digitalisation as well as to officially kick-off the HWC 2023-2025.
Representatives from the government, social partners and the international community took an active involvement in the event, and all underlined the importance of OSH risks prevention in workplaces, especially with regard to risks connected to digitalisation.
The conference had also the aim to launch the HWC 2023-2025 "Safe and healthy work in the digital age". In that respect, the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Ms Jovanka Trenchevska, reiterated the commitment by the national institutions to enhance a deep culture of OSH risks prevention in workplaces, throughout North Macedonia. The Head of Cooperation of the EU Delegation, Mr Steffen Hudolin, underlined the importance to fully implement the OSH legislation in the perspective of the EU accession process. Remarkable interventions were delivered by the president of the Federation of Trade Unions and the president of the Organisation of Employers.
Afterwards, national companies implementing the best OSH systems were awarded by the Minister of Labour and Social Policy.
Finally, the last part of the event offered a in-depth awareness of OSH risks related to digitalisation. EU-OSHA introduced the main aim of the HWC 2023-2025 and made specific reference to OSH psychosocial risks data referring to workplaces in North Macedonia collected and elaborated by the European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER) of 2019. Important interventions by Maja Anachkova, from the Mechanical Engineering Faculty of the University “St Cyril and Methodius”, Maja Panajotovic Radevska, from the Occupational Medicine Institute and part of SEENWH, Katsiaryna Marozava, from the Italian Association on Environment and Safety (AIAS) and member of the European Network of Safety and Health Professional Organisations (ENSHPO), and Borche Stojchevski, from the OSH NGO Tutela concluded the event.
On 25 and 26 September 2023, EU-OSHA organised the third Focal point meeting of the year, hosted by the Spanish Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, in Toledo, Spain. The aim of the meeting was to share with the EU member states, EEA countries and IPA beneficiaries information on the latest activities and projects of the agency as well as the latest OSH knowledge and create a group discussion on the activities and strategies ahead.
IPA Focal point managers from Bosnia and Herzegovina (for the first time), Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye participated at the meeting.
The event was followed by the Spanish EU Council Presidency conference on "Mental health and precarious work. The management of psychosocial risks" that took place on 27 Setpember.
On 14 September 2023, within the framework of the EU funded IPA project 2023-2025, EU-OSHA organised an on-line seminar addressed to IPA Focal point managers and OSH stakeholders, with the scope to present the recently published guide "Heat at Work - Guidance for Workplaces" and to introduce the main OSH risks.
Following the opening and welcome to the participants by the agency Executive Director, William Cockburn, Elke Schneider, senior policy advisor of the agency, presented the EU-OSHA publication and introduced the main OSH risk factors related to climate change and impacting on workers' health.
Derran William, senior OSH advisor of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, shared his professional experience on climate change and work risks and provided a comparative analysis of the temperatures raising in the Western Balkans and Türkiye, on the related OSH risks and the suggested remedies.
Michail Kandarakis, Labour inspection and OSH specialist of the ILO project office Qatar, introduced the heat stress mitigation strategies adopted by ILO in Qatar, which include adoption of new legislation, as best practice to be considered in the new context of global warming, which is already reaching the whole Europe, and in the perspective of OSH risks prevention in workplaces.
Following the presentations, the participants had the opportunity to raise questions to the speakers and share their own experiences. Representatives from the Ministry of Labour of North Macedonia (EU-OSHA focal point) and the NGO MOSHA shared very interesting aspects of heat at work risks impacting on workers and proposed mitigating measures.
The IPA webinar was attended by 50 participants from the Western Balkans and Türkiye as well as from representatives of governments of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.